CapitalRise looks to £1.5m crowdfunding raise

The property platform plans to write bigger loans and expand its marketing.

CapitalRise has launched a public crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs as the online property platform plans to write bigger loans and boost its marketing operations.

The firm said it has already hit its initial £1.5m fundraising target, backed by almost 300 existing investors on Seedrs crowdfunding platform in under four days. The fundraising is thrown open to the public from today.

The property business said: “The raise is now open to over-funding, enabling the business to invest in accelerating its growth even quicker than planned.”

The business has lent over £25m against over £270m of prime property since it was launched, in locations such as Mayfair, Knightsbridge and the home counties.

It said it will use the cash to expand its team, write larger loans and “invest in the marketing required to achieve its £100m target of total lending”.

It added demand from property developers for loans “remains robust”, with the business attracting a record £1.6bn of loan enquiries over the last six months.

The platform promises returns of between 8 and 12 per cent, with investments starting at £1,000.

CapitalRise co-founder and chief executive Uma Rajah said: “While this raise will be used to expand the business, this year we are also looking to write increasingly bigger ticket loans, while ensuring we never compromise on the quality of assets we lend against, so that we can maintain our impressive track record.”

However, prices in the prime London markets fell by 4.8% in the year to February, according to estate agent Knight Frank’s prime sales index, adding that “the number of exchanges has declined due to uncertainty surrounding Brexit negotiations”.

CapitalRise raised £2m in seed funding last April, led by the family of Indian billionaire Rana Kapoor, who founded Yes Bank in 2004.

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